Andrew Harnik/AP; Insider
- A mystery buyer spent $875,000 on 11 of Hunter Biden's paintings.
- The buyer, whose identity is not known, lives outside New York, according to gallery documents obtained by Insider.
- That buyer's payments represent the majority of the $1,379,000 that Biden has made for his artwork.
A mystery buyer shelled out $875,000 for Hunter Biden's artwork.
That's according to internal documents from Biden's art gallery that Insider obtained. The buyer's purchases make up the bulk of the $1,379,000 that the first son has made off of his artwork, the documents show.
The identity of the buyer is not known, but they appear to live outside New York and purchased some of his largest format works from the Georges Bergès Gallery in Manhattan.
Insider also found that another buyer who purchased Hunter Biden's artwork is an influential Democratic donor who was appointed by President Joe Biden to the Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad. The timing of the purchase by that donor, Elizabeth Hirsh Naftali, is unknown, however.
Hunter Biden was aware of Hirsh Naftali's identity as well as the identity of another buyer, Kevin Morris, Insider learned. Hunter Biden's counsel told Insider that he became aware of the buyers' identities after their purchases because they were his friends. That new detail complicates the White House's pledge that Hunter Biden would be walled off from knowing the identities of his buyers in an attempt to separate his business dealings from his father's administration. Hirsh Naftali's role on the commission establishes at least one point at which the worlds of Hunter Biden's art patrons and President Biden's donors overlap.
Indeed, the Biden White House has struggled with the optics of a presidential family member participating in the opaque and mostly unregulated global art market.
According to The Washington Post, White House officials helped draft an agreement that would allow Hunter Biden to earn a living from his art while not knowing who buys his paintings. The agreement was struck with the owner of Georges Bergès Gallery, who estimated that the younger Biden's paintings could sell for anywhere from $75,000 to $500,000 apiece, which art critics said were prices more typically seen for established and successful artists.
"Hunter Biden is a private citizen who is entitled to have his own career as an artist," Ian Sams, a White House spokesperson, told Insider this week. "We are not involved in his art sales, and any buyers of his art are not disclosed to the White House."
The first son, meanwhile, has publicly brushed off those who criticize his work as being pricey and overrated.
"You seem to have good spirits about this sort of kind of crazed narrative around your painting," Nate Freeman, the co-host of the podcast "Nota Bene," told Biden in a 2021 interview. "What's your response to people who are, you know, coming after the prices of the work or just, you know, the collectors, I mean, what's been your response to that?"
"Other than 'fuck 'em'?" Biden quipped as Freeman and co-host Benjamin Godsill broke into laughter.
"That's a pretty good response," Freeman said, while Godsill added: "I think that's all you need."